Out Of The Shadow Of The Bat
by Speedster
Summary: A prologue to "Rebirth" and an explanation of some of the loose ends I've noticed about "Batman Beyond".


This story is an attempt to fill in some of the back story of "Batman: Beyond". Some things never made sense – why is there a vidlink from the Batsuit to the Cave? Bruce wouldn't tolerate someone watching over him without good reason. How about the button he used to shut down the suit? Yeah, Bats is paranoid, but with his fanatic self-control, why would he have a way to take himself down…and who would he expect to be using the link and safety switch? Also, Barbara Gordon's bitterness would be more in character for Nightwing – after all, she pushed hard for her right to the mantle of Batgirl, and seemed to really enjoy it in "The New Batman-Superman Adventures." What happened to make her so bitter about vigilantes in general and Batman in particular? I thought of this possibility one day – while it's set in the DCAU, I did pull in elements from several comics, including "The Dark Knight Returns" and "The Killing Joke". This is set about 5 years before Bruce's retirement at the beginning of "Rebirth", which in turn was 20 years before the events of "Batman Beyond", so 15 years after "The New Batman-Superman Adventures". Based on my guess about people's ages "now" (Babs in early 20's, Bruce in mid 30s, and Jim Gordon in early 60s – as he's the age Thomas Wayne would have been), this story finds Barbara Gordon in her late 30s, Bruce Wayne in his early 50s, and Jim Gordon in his late 70s. Given our DCAU introduction to Batgirl, the title fits this story very nicely, I think.

Out of the Shadow Of The Bat, Chapter 1

Pain.

She woke to pain. It was centered in her torso, but the aches spread all through her body. There was something else, too – a sense that there was some great emotional pain, too. Her brain was so fuzzy that she couldn't remember what it was, but she knew it was there.

A nurse entered, wearing incongruously brightly colored scrubs. "Oh, you're awake! How are you feeling – let me go page your doctor." The nurse stepped out, and her voice was heard asking one of her colleagues to page Dr. Chang. The nurse then reappeared and promptly took a set of vital signs.

The doctor, a Eurasian woman in her 30's came in soon after that, and quickly examined the patient. Satisfied with the exam, she then pulled up a chair and sat for a conversation.

"Miss Gordon, how much do you remember about what happened?"

Barbara Gordon furrowed her brow, thinking. "I had just gotten back in, and my dad was at my apartment. We were talking about…what I was going to do with my career. Then…oh, my god…"

"You and your father were both shot multiple times at close range. Apparently, your assailant was going after several people with whom he had worked before his accident. He missed Bruce Wayne, who came to check on your father. Mr. Wayne is the one who called the ambulance – he stayed with you both until it arrived. Did a good job of first aid, too – that may help you both pull through. Hamilton Hill, the retired mayor, wasn't so lucky. Hill's guards killed his attacker, but it was too late for the Mayor."

"So our attacker is dead?"

"Yes. Harvey Dent and Two-Face are both gone."

Over the next several days, Barbara learned more about what had happened. She had returned from a patrol as Batgirl to find her father waiting at her apartment. While neither of them had ever explicitly discussed her…extra-curricular activities, her father knew about her other identity, and she knew that he knew. Neither of them really felt comfortable discussing it, in part because it might lead to a discussion about the identity of the man who had worked with her father for so long, and with whom she worked now. Again, Barbara thought that her father probably was aware of the identity of the man behind the cowl, but as long as it wasn't discussed, he could truthfully say he didn't "know" whenever the subject came up in meetings.

Most of that was in the past, now. Her father was in his late seventies, after all, and had finally stepped down as Police Commissioner. While she knew that he knew her secret, she was still surprised to see him waiting. Her father had always been careful not to "accidentally learn" about her other identity, after all, and here he was, calmly watching her come in through the window in her Batgirl outfit.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" she asked, taken aback by his presence.

"We need to talk, Barbara," Jim Gordon said. "I know that you tried to tell me outright about Batgirl all those years ago, and I told you at the time that I didn't want to know. I still would rather not know, because…well, it makes things more complicated, but I need to talk to you about some things, and it involves your nighttime activities."

"OK, Dad…do you want some coffee or something before we start?"

Barbara made coffee, and while it was perking, slipped out of her boots, gauntlets, utility belt, cape and cowl, leaving her bodysuit on. She pulled a robe over her suit, making it impossible to tell that she was wearing a Batgirl outfit without opening her robe. After pouring coffee and giving a mug to her dad, she curled up on the couch, facing him.

"Barbara, you know that I've always felt that while Batman and the rest of you may have been skirting the law, what you do was necessary for Gotham…and he's never crossed the line in my mind between right and wrong. Lord knows he had reason – like that episode with the Joker that we covered up – but he never went beyond what I felt was the border. He seemed to feel that was the border, too…one reason that we worked so well together."

"Still, while he never crossed the line between right and wrong, he did cross the one between legal and not. You probably know that there have been more and more challenges in court by criminals brought in by Batman – everything from excessive use of force to not reading Miranda rights. The new commissioner, Ellen Yindel, doesn't see things like I did. She's a fine cop, don't get me wrong – but she wasn't here 25 years ago when he started. She doesn't see how much things have changed. And she's not going to cut him the slack that I did. If he keeps it up, she's going to go after him. And who knows? Maybe she's right. Maybe he's cleaned up the city enough that regular police work can take care of things. That didn't use to be the case, but things have changed a lot in the last 25 years. And Lord knows, he's given enough – more than any man ought to."

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about this. I've known who you are for years. Maybe I've known who he is, too – but I've never confirmed it and I don't want to start now. The climate's changing, though – things aren't going to be the same as they were 15 years ago when you started. Maybe you should think about leaving the nightlife behind you. I know you could go much further in the department, and for all he's done, Batman's time may be over."

"Besides," he said, with a sly twinkle in his eyes, "I'm kind of surprised that you're still letting people call you 'Batgirl'. Shouldn't it be 'Batwoman' by now?"

Barbara laughed at that. While a lot of what her father said was hard to accept, she had been noticing the changes in the month since Commissioner Yindel had been sworn in…and truth be told, with many of the costumed criminals from Batman's earlier career either dead or locked up in the new, high-security Arkham, it was seeming as though more and more of the crime was common crime that cops could handle as well as Batman.

Before she could organize her thoughts enough to respond, there was a knock on the door. As Barbara went to look through the peephole, her head occluded the light visible to the person on the other side of the door. As soon as that happened, two .45 Colts began firing, blasting through the door and into her abdomen. While the Kevlar of her uniform slowed the heavy slugs down, it couldn't stop them completely. As she fell to the ground, a heavy shoulder crashed into the door, knocking it open. Two Face stood silhouetted in the doorway, glaring at her father.

"It's been a long time, Jim," the former D.A. rasped.

"Not long enough, Dent," grated Jim, with his eyes locked on his daughter's still form. "What happened to your coin? It's not like you to just shoot first."

"I still have the coin, Jim. It always reflected my two sides. Well, it still does – but my sides match a bit better now." With that, Two-Face flipped his signature coin towards Jim Gordon. As it rolled to a stop, Gordon saw that both sides were marred with scratches, rather than just one.

"So you see, Jim, since I agree on things now, it saves a lot of time. No more wailing and moaning about chance – now I know. Chance doesn't matter. It's all fate. And your fate has come. For persecuting me. Betraying me. You, Hill, Wayne – people I worked with. Was friends with. Trusted. You turned on me. Hunted me. Now your actions come back around – you've picked your own fate." And with that, he raised his guns again – one pointing at the still form of Barbara Gordon, one at her father.

Batman had been in the cave concentrating on the design of his newest uniform. While he hated to admit it, he was starting to slow down. The creeps and lowlifes hadn't noticed yet, but they were also intimidated by his reputation. Everyone feared the Bat. And as long as they feared, they wouldn't be able to fight back as well. But Batman himself noticed that he wasn't quite as fast as he had been even 5 years ago. Sooner or later, some punk would stop to think about how long it had been since Batman first appeared. He'd start to wonder if the old man still had it. And one of these days, he might be right. Because of that, it was time to upgrade. Wayne Industries had been working with equipment for enhancing performance. Much of it had come from the now-defunct Lexcorp. Luthor's obsession with fighting Kent was finally going to be useful.

As he looked up from the design, he noticed an alarm blinking – a sign of trouble in the Manor. Batman frowned. Since Alfred's death several years ago, he spent less and less time up in the manor – often working in the cave for days on end without food or sleep. He pulled up the security cameras, only to see Harvey Dent leaving after having trashed several rooms. As Batman reviewed the footage and heard Harvey's raving, he frowned and tried to reach Batgirl. There was no response to the communicator in her cowl. Frowning, he hurried to the new aerial vehicle he had recently finished, strapping himself in and heading out of the cave.

When Batman entered the apartment, he stopped in shock. Nightwing was well established in Bludhaven, and the two rarely spoke. After the episode more than 10 years ago, he and Tim had also been estranged, with Tim being furious at having been "shut out", as he put it, from Batman's activities. Alfred had died several years ago, and Leslie had followed within a few months. That left Jim and Barbara Gordon as the two closest people in his life, and they were both still and bleeding in her apartment.

He immediately got to work, sending the "Batmobile" (as Barbara had facetiously named it) away. He called 911 to get an ambulance, and changed to civilian clothes from the cache he kept here in case of emergency. He bandaged both Gordons; while Alfred had been a much more accomplished field medic, he had learned quite about first aid over the years. He noticed that Barbara had the bodysuit of her Batgirl outfit on under her robe, and quickly stripped that off, noting the bullet holes in the torso. Just as he was hiding her uniform, the squad showed up. The paramedics quickly started IVs and intubated both of the victims, and took them to the hospital. The police took Bruce down to the station with them and asked him in detail about what happened. While the exact events at the Manor took a little rewriting, no police officer was going to poke too closely at the story of the man who saved their former Commissioner's life.

By the time he got out of the police station, having been offered more cups of coffee than he knew what to do with, the news had already come in – Two-Face had shot former mayor Hamilton Hill, and been gunned down in turn by his security detail. While Batman and Hill had never been close, Batman still cursed himself for waiting with his friends rather than immediately heading out to stop Two-Face. And Harvey – while his darker half had gradually been taking over, Bruce still remembered the idealistic district attorney with whom he had been so close as a young man.

Her father was still unconscious from the shock of his wounds.


End file.
